Archives for March 2015

This is just a reminder that the Mindful Eating World Summit: Stop dieting and START LIVING! online event runs March 16th – 26th for 11 days.

I’m very excited to be a part of Dr. Kellee Rutley’s virtual event. She’s brought together over 28 amazing POWERHOUSE experts to help you remove the guilt, shame and confusion around weight issues and TRUE health, and disocver powerful ideas that work to EMPOWER you!

We are Doctors, Educators, Scientists, Zen Masters, Psychologists, Naturopaths and Holistic Chefs! New York Times and Hay House authors, World Renowned Master Trainers, Coaches and Nutritionists. Many of us have had our own issues with poor health, unhealthy weight rollercoasters, emotional eating, anxiety and depression – and our personal stories reflect that. Had my own issues with anxiety and panic and at one stage was such a choco-holic!

Together, we’ll share ways to help you reach optimal health, vitality and happiness!

I was given a sneak peek at some of the interviews and would love to share some gems from the wonderful interview with Dr. Michael Finkelstein….

Dr. Michael Finkelstein, The Slow Medicine Doctor, has been featured in top media outlets including The New York Times and CNN; has presented at leading venues including GE Corporation and Omega Institute; and blogs on the topic of Slow Medicine for The Huffington Post.

Dr. Finkelstein opened with this powerful message: “The promise of science let us down…the reality was that it doesn’t work for everything. Procedures and medicines often cause side-effects and problems, and 80% of people going to the doctor these days have a chronic problem (often contributed in part by their treatments). My patients would say to me (after 15 years of writing prescriptions): ‘isn’t there something else?’ I didn’t have the answer. When my blood pressure started to rise, I went to my physician who said you said to me ‘you need to be on medication’ and I said: ‘isn’t there something else?’ I had to go back to school to study integrative medicine to find the answer and I learned about other tools to augment my tool box. Instead of a pen and a scalpel I had so much more”

He suggests putting flowers and candles on the table when we’re eating – to improve our mood and overall eating experience

I really love when he talked about how “activity with meaning” or “movement with purpose” and how it is way more than simply exercising (like being on a treadmill). He suggests things like building a community garden, hiking with friends and gardening. “Do something you love and then you’ll do it!”

He loves to garden, his office is located in a garden and he shared the importance of nature, air, natural light, rain, getting your hands in the dirt, and probiotics and the microbiome and how it changes when you garden. I loved hearing him say so many of us suffer from nature-deficit-disorder! It’s so true!

His best quick fix for your health is Slow Medicine…when you change how you are living, you’ll feel in alignment and your anxiety will go down because your expectations are reasonable.

Dr. Finkelstein also shared how if we aren’t living a life that’s meaningful with purpose, we’re going to be very hungry and our craving will lead us to food because it’s readily available. Sometimes our hunger is emotional and with food we are feeding our bodies, and our minds and spirits. He talks about finding your purpose and finding the treasure in your pain (for example, your anxiety or emotional eating) and looking for one key to the treasure. Beautiful!

Methylation polymorphisms (also called defects or mutations or SNPs) can impact mood. I’d like to share a few studies on some of the mood issues, other health conditions where we may see impacts and some resources for you to learn more.

If you have one of the MTHFR polymorphisms, the BH4 cycle may be affected and may impact how we make serotonin and dopamine. Here is some of the research:

Our DNA is not set in stone! Diet and lifestyle can go a long way to change our health destiny

The good news is that we can change our health, our disease outcomes and how we feel by eating real whole good quality organic food, getting chemicals and toxins out of our diets and environment, reducing stress, supporting the liver and our natural detox processes.

Certain key nutrients can also be very help for many people with polymorphisms. I’ll share more on folate and other nutrients and other SNPs in a later blog post. I’ll also share more on genetic testing.

I’d love to hear if you’ve done genetic testing and how making changes (supplement, diet, lifestyle) have helped. Be sure to post questions too.

MTHFR is one hot topic and many of you are getting your MTHFR results, but do not know what to do with them. Methylation cycle abnormalities can predispose you to disease. The MTHFR SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) is at a key position in the methylation cycle and if not working properly, can affect the whole pathway, creating symptoms and disease. The good news is that nutritional protocols and lifestyle modifications can help tremendously. Most conventional doctors do not know about MTHFR, they have not studied the biochemical pathways and they don’t know how to support you on your journey to health.

Coleen Walsh, Dubbed the “methyl queen” Created a Guide for the Everyday Mutant – A Training on The Basics – MTHFR and Methylation Pathways – Just for You – The Everyday Mutant!

This 3-hour presentation breaks down the biochemistry of these pathways and epigenetics to give you a big picture idea of what is happening inside your cells and why it is important. Coleen is a natural educator and has an innate ability to break down the scientific information into to layman terms, so you can easily understand these pathways. She created motion graphics to help you get a visual of the biochemistry and what that could mean to your health when you have these SNPs (mutations).

MTHFR interview from the Anxiety Summit – for your listening pleasure

I had the pleasure of interviewing Coleen on season 1 of The Anxiety Summit. I’d like to share that interview with you here, so you can get a taste of her level of expertise. It’s yours to listen to whether or not you can attend the training. Enjoy!

PS. If you can’t make it live, you can still register and get the recordings/handouts later

PPS. This is a workshop for the lay-person. The 5 hour practitioner training was last week – if you’re a practitioner or would like to share this with your practitioner you’ll be able to get the recordings and handouts by signing up here for the MTHFR and Methylation Practitioner training. More information can be found on my blog here.

I am happy to invite you to this online event that will bring together 16 experts in women’s health and balancing hormones that will help you find relief from menopausal symptoms and enjoy a healthy, vital future.

Here is an excerpt from a recent article Katherine wrote:

Every woman goes through menopause, yet very few prepare for it. This natural shift of our biology, from reproductive potential to what I call the “self-creative” stage, is a potent time for women. So much of our energy is freed up for new ventures, including our own self-development.

Yet rather than enjoy menopause as a time of positive potential, most women find themselves struggling to cope with the hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, low libido, exhaustion and host of other symptoms for which “the change” is known. The problem is that rather than practicing good self-care, most of us have been pushing ourselves past our limits for years. We begin the 10+ year transition into menopause when our resources are at their lowest, which causes natural hormonal shifts to be unnaturally dramatic or even hellish.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. “Lifestyle is so under-rated as a preventive measure in staying well–stress reduction, sleep, exercise, eating well,” says Dr. Mache Seibel, a professor at UMass Medical School, who focuses on perimenopause and menopause. “There has to be an awareness of ‘How can I take care of myself?’”

Even those whose symptoms of exaggerated hormonal imbalance have become impossible to ignore have more choices than they may realize. “It’s just quite incredible how food choices, lifestyle choices, good quality sleep, detoxifying our environment, taking care of the gut, and taking care of the liver can have some really profound impacts on our hormones,” says health coach Magdalena Wszelaki.

Dr. Mache Seibel and health coach Magdalena Wszelaki are speakers on the summit and I support everything they say!

My talk is today and the focus is anxiety …. “Your key nutrients to end anxiety and stress during menopause.” I talk about:

low GABA and low serotonin and the connection to low progesterone and estrogen

why grass-fed red meat is good (really!!) – zinc, iron, omega-3s and more

and why skipping the coffee is a good thing!

Also hear Dr. Tami Meraglia today. She is an integrative MD, and author of the soon-to-be-released book called The Hormone Secret (I have my advance review copy and it’s good!) and one of my favorite hormone docs (and a good friend who I adore)!

And do catch the rest of the excellent line-up through the week.

To entice you and give you a feel for what is to come, here are some tweets with quotes from many of the speakers.